Absorbent articles such as diapers, sanitary napkins and incontinence shields are intended to catch and absorb body fluids from a user's genital area. Depending on the application and the amount of fluid the article must be able to absorb, there are, of course, articles with different shapes and sizes. For instance, diapers for heavily incontinent adults are obviously considerably larger and have larger absorption capacity than diapers for infants. Furthermore, in addition to the demands for sufficient absorption capacity and leakage security, the articles are also required to be comfortable to wear. It is also important for adult users that the articles are discreet and able to be worn without being noticed under normal clothes.
The absorbent articles must thus be designed with sufficient absorption capacity in order to absorb the excreted body fluid, but still have a good fit so that they are comfortable and flexible to wear and so that they conform well to the user's body and prevent leakage. One difficulty in the shaping of an absorbent article intended to be worn in a user's crotch area is that the space between the user's legs is limited. This implies that the article, in order to be comfortable to wear, must be narrowest in the area where the greater part of the fluid released from the user is going to impact the article. Thus, there is an obvious risk that the area of the article that is wetted first is saturated with fluid and becomes incapable of absorbing further released fluid even though a large part of the absorbent material at the end portions of the article remains unused. This means that the risk of leakage is great even when the article has absorbed relatively small amounts of fluid. In order to prevent fluid leakage past the side edges of an absorbent article of this kind, it is therefore common to provide the article with some kind of edge barriers. Such edge barriers are often resilient and form raised physical barriers to the liquid flow. It is common to arrange elastic members, which are tightened around the user's legs, in diapers and incontinence shields of the kind worn as absorbent underpants, thereby keeping the edges of the article in sealing contact with the legs.
Resilient leg bands and raised barriers are usually, in articles such as diapers and incontinence shields for heavy incontinence, combined with the fact that the article is shaped with a relatively wide crotch portion in order to achieve sufficient absorption capacity within the wetting area of the article. Such a crotch area will be folded together between the user's legs during use, or will hang down between the legs as a fluid-collecting bag. Such shaping creates random channels which can give rise to leakage, is not particularly comfortable or discreet, and moreover functions poorly when the user is sitting down. For sanitary napkins and other absorbent articles where the demand for discretion during use is particularly great, such a clumsy and inelastic structure is not at all acceptable. Articles such as sanitary napkins and incontinence shields for light incontinence are also rather small and are not self-supporting, but are attached inside a pair of ordinary underpants, which during use holds the article in contact with the user's body. A structure with a depending or folded-together crotch area is thus not at all useful for this category of articles.
As is evident from the above, there is a need for an absorbent article that has a good fit, high leakage security and high absorption capacity in the initial wetting area, and that is discreet and comfortable to wear. It is also desirable to be able to offer an absorbent article, which has a fit so good that special forming elements or leakage barriers, for instance in the form of elastic members, can be avoided.